


Automaton

by Ndddd97



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Attempt at Humor, Gen, Robots, The Great Fodlan Bakeoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24673228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ndddd97/pseuds/Ndddd97
Summary: Automaton: a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being.(Written for the Great Fodlan Bakeoff, a very late one)
Kudos: 3





	Automaton

**Author's Note:**

> Mercedes as Automaton (or Robot if you are fancy) with a mix of Modern AU and Ingrid, Sylvain and Felix being roommates.
> 
> Enjoy!!

“Sylvain! We are home!” Said the blond girl in white sweater shirt and black khaki pants with a leathery handbag as she entered the apartment flat. Following her was the blue-haired man with ponytail-styled hair wearing black white-shirt with blue denim jacket and black jeans as he carried his backpack into the apartment.

“We are home, Sylvain!!” The blue-haired man repeated the blond’s statement after hearing no reply from their friend earlier, and this time he didn’t reply back.

“Strange… Sylvain said he’s at home all day after school” The blond suspected noticing how quiet the room got with no reply as she put her handbag onto the coffee table of the living room and scanned the room for any sign of their friend being here.

“He could have lied about that and gone out wooing girls again. Did you think about that, Ingrid?” The blue-haired man assumed with annoyed tone at his friend Sylvain’s apparent disappearance as he set his backpack onto the couch and sat down onto it, reclining and relaxing.

“If he did, he could have messaged us or posted on his social media about it, Felix” Argued the blond woman as she inspected the living room for any sign of his stuff laying around. After inspecting the living room, she went to the small kitchen area of the apartment and found his backpack sitting on the floor next to the fridge. The woman raised her eyebrows and frowned at the backpack as she opened the fridge to see stuff lazily pushed aside, obviously telling her that someone was searching for leftovers to eat and not cooking for themselves.

“I found his backpack. He’s definitely here” She spoke loudly to Felix and closed the fridge as Felix turned to look at her with obvious confused and puzzled look on his face.

“Then why didn’t we hear him reply back-” A loud crashing noise accompanied by a man swearing caught Felix and the blond’s attention to the door where the sound came from.

“That’s definitely Sylvain. Let’s check it out” Felix said getting up from the couch as he, along with the blond woman, approached to the door with the sign “Felix & Sylvain’s room” hanging on it. Their apartment came with two bedrooms, both were the same size and had one bed each, The problem was there were three people and only two bedrooms and so two must share a bed. Since Ingrid was so much into protecting her privacy, Felix had to bunk with Sylvain and slept with him on their shared bed thus began the ensuing shenanigans and troubles between the two. But that’s a story or another time.

“Open the door, Sylvain! We know you are in there!!” The blond woman called out to them and banged on the door to get his attention as sound of stuff falling, cardboard boxes and metal stuffs judging by the sound, and thumping sound with few cursing here and there. Eventually, the door was opened as Sylvain peeked his head slightly out with a worried and sweating expression.

“Ingrid and Felix! You two are home early” The redhead said nervously as his two friends looked at each other before looking at him with suspicious look.

“What are you doing in there, Sylvain?” Asked Ingrid crossing her arms and looking at him as Sylvain nervously giggled.

“W-Well it was nothing really” He nervously lied to them as the two looked at each other and then looked at him with furrowed brow, obviously suspecting something is wrong here.

“Really? Then what’s with the stuffs falling and cursing?” Felix asked with suspecting tone as Sylvain chuckling obviously while cursing himself under his breath for making such blunder.

“L-Like I said it was nothing. Hey Ingrid, want to cook three of us a meal? I’m hungry for a good steak right now…” As Sylvain tried to lie his way out of the predicament, Sylvain slowly closed the door only be stopped by Ingrid stopping the door with her foot.

“Sylvain Jose Gautier. You got some explaining to do” Ingrid demanded with forceful and stern tone as Sylvain had no other choice but to let them know, accompanied by his obvious sigh.

“If you must” As he opened the door for them to enter, the two saw before boxes, cardboard boxes, big and small laying around the floor of the bedroom with metal bits either laying around the floor or inside the boxes. The two watched in astonishment as they entered the room and inspected the mess he made.

“Now I know what you two are thinking, but please help me clean up the mess and you can punish me later” Sylvain pleaded the two to help as Ingrid and Felix felt bewildered at the mess and his call for their help.

“And why should we?” Felix asked feeling annoyed from being asked to help clear the mess as the two stood angrily waiting for an accepted answer from him. The redhead went silent for minutes until his shoulders and hands raised with uncertain smile on his face.

“Because you are obliged to?” Letting out an uncertain response with a raised shoulders, the two stood in silence processing what Sylvain just said to them. Eventually, the two sighed as they reluctantly agreed to help him out.

“Fine, we will help but next time you get into a mess like this, go clean up the mess yourself” Ingrid cautioned him as she and Felix began to rummage through the cardboard boxes and take out whatever it is inside them. Sylvain let out a sigh of relief and thanked whoever above him for convincing the two friends of his to help him out, despite him knowing that his attempt would fail miserably but at least it worked.

“I know I can trust you two. Anyway, help me get these out and assemble it” Sylvain exclaimed excitedly as she too began rummaging through the boxes and took things out of them.

“Assemble it?” Said the blue-haired man in confused tone as he took some metal parts out of the box, which he assumed to be the legs?

“It’s a long story, but I can tell you two since we will be here for a while” He offered as he unwrapped the bubble wrap around a component which was a face?

“Please enlightening us, Sylvain” Ingrid requested, feeling curious about the story Sylvain offered to tell as she lit up when she found a thick manual written by his uncle with his name “Henry” on it. 

“Well, let me tell you about my grandfather, Ernest Alejandro Gautier…”

* * *

_ Ernest Alejandro Gautier, Sylvain’s late grandfather, once a toymaker making and creating wonderful toys, ranging from dolls to toy figures to model cars and so on, for the children to play with. Unlike many toymakers, his grandfather dared to explore the niche corners of the toy industry that no one attempt to go before, to create toys that never seen before. In turn, the kids adored the toys he made including his grandson Sylvain as his business grew financially and his factory expanded. Though as time went by, his grandfather began to work in secrecy within a closed-off section of his factory. Gossips spread around by employees of the factory about his secrecy, and no one knew why. _

_ Told only to Sylvain when he visited him, his grandfather aimed to make the world very first automaton after watching many old science fiction movies. With great ambition, his grandfather determined to create and complete his automaton and showed the world the potential of. After many failed attempts and money and time devoted to his foolish goal, he finally finished the automaton but unfortunately died of exhaustion before he could see his lifework and dream came true. _

_ With his death, his business was taken over by Sylvain's uncle, Henry, as he restructured and reshaped the business while cleaning up what left of his grandfather's remnants. Soon he found the secret hidden room where the automaton was kept and disassembled it as he kept it away within the dark corner of the storeroom. _

_ As for why Sylvain got this automaton from his uncle? Well, Sylvain explained that his uncle gave this for his late, 6 days late, birthday present for him. He didn’t mind that his uncle sent ton of boxes to their apartment room _

* * *

While Sylvain was telling about his grandfather, they worked on gathering the metal parts and assembling them according to the very long instruction his grandfather wrote for them. The instruction told them all how to connect the parts together through intricate and complex connections, or simply nuts and bolts and some screws to connect the parts together. Right now, the trio was almost done assembling the thing with just connecting the head to the rest of the body as Felix and Sylvain held the head for Ingrid to tighten the screw to connect to the body.

"And… done!" Said Ingrid after she finished tightening the screw to connect the head and the neck together as the three all stepped back to look at what they were building. The thing they just assembled looked similar to an automaton, but not just any ordinary automaton, this one literally came out of old science fiction movies, one where the future was uncertain and unpredictable to the people back then. The automaton itself resembles an adult woman with short creamy hair and blue eyes wearing a maid outfit (which came in a separate box and they had to put it on while assembling it), which was currently standing with its eyes wide open. 

"Now what?" Felix asked, feeling confused on what to do after exhaustingly screwing and putting parts together as he was the one in charge of putting the head together because they said that he had delicate hands. Excruciating indeed but at least he was not Dimitri. As Sylvain scratching his head for what to do next, Ingrid read the manual thoroughly, pages after pages for what to do next. If it weren’t for the manual, they would be in more mess than before.

"According to the manual your uncle wrote, there should be a wind-up key inserted to the neck of this… thing" She said as Sylvain continued to scratch his head until he realized something and began searching his pocket.

"A wind-up key? Like this one?" Pulling out from his pocket, Sylvain held the wind-up key, brass in color and lot bigger than any ordinary toy wind-up key. Ingrid looked at the large wind-up key and went back to the manual as she looked at the design of the wind-up key and compared the two.

"Yep, that's the one. Just insert it at the back of its neck and turn it counter-clockwise three times" Ingrid told him based on what she read on the manual as Sylvain excitedly tossed the key a short distance up before catching it again.

"Gotcha!" As he was about to walk over to the automaton, Felix stopped him with his hand grasped onto his shoulder.

"How do we know it's safe to turn that thing? It may not work, or worst, it could explode on us" Felix warned him as Sylvain playfully rolled his eyes and cast his hand aside.

"Oh don't be a joy killer, Felix. What's the worst that could happen?" Sylvain shrugged off his warning as he went behind the automaton and searched for the insertion hole for the wind-up key at the back of the neck. He quickly found the hole at the said location as he inserted the key and turned it counter-clockwise three times just as Ingrid said. He hurried back to the three as they waited to see the automaton come to life. Minutes have passed, nothing happened as disappointment shown on Sylvain's while Ingrid and Felix felt annoyed and angry that they wasted their time building this thing. But before the two could say a word, the unthinkable happened.

The automaton first blinked its eyelids and its eyes moved left and right simultaneously. Its individual fingers moved rigidly and let out sound of rusted joint piercing their ear as its arms began to move upward towards its chest with the same rigidness. As the automaton clasped its hand together, its facial features began to form into a welcoming face with relaxing blue eyes and curved lips.

“Sylvain?!” Said the frightened blond as she and other two all stepped back to watch what befell to them as the automaton smiled and stared at them with artificial eyes and mouth.

“It’s an honor to finally meet you, Master Gautier. I am Mercedes and I will be your maid for your service and need. Just tell me what to do and I will do it as you request” As the automaton bowed to the three, Sylvain, along with Ingrid and Felix, all stood dumbfounded and speechless to what happened before them.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED...


End file.
